ROCHELLE — Andrew Nuyen admitted he didn’t have the sharpest warmups as he prepared to take the runway for the pole vault competition during the 48th Annual Hub Relays on Saturday.

That didn’t hold him back from shattering his own RTHS school record, clearing 5.18 meters (17 feet) to finish in first and obliterate his previous record by a full foot. Despite some uneasiness before the competition started, Nuyen ascended far beyond his previous record, tweaking the distance of his approach on the runway and using a longer pole to achieve his new record.

“I had a bad mental approach coming in and I didn’t think I’d clear anything above 15 feet, but I turned it around,” Nuyen said. “I was mostly hanging out with my friends and I think that being in a fun environment really pushed me. It was hard to progress throughout the entire competition because my warumps weren’t very good, but I started slow and I progressed from there.”

Nuyen, who finished first at the meet and helped lead Rochelle to third place with 104 points in the team standings, has set four school records since the start of his sophomore season. After breaking John Place’s 1983 record of 15 feet at the Ogle County Championships last spring, Nuyen cleared 15 feet 11 inches at the Auburn Indoor Invitational in February before breaking the 16-foot barrier during the 2025 Windy City Pole Vault Summit at Rolling Meadows in March.

“I make adjustments during practice, but from a meet perspective, it’s a big challenge because it’s hard to change what you’re used to doing at meets,” Nuyen said. “It worked out and I thought the meet gave me a lot of confidence in my long approaches during the outdoor season… I have this feeling that I’ve proven myself, so I want to ride it out and have as much fun as I can.”

Nuyen, who now ranks first in Class 2A, second in the IHSA and ninth nationally in the pole vault,  was one of four Hub athletes to win field events during the meet on Saturday. Junior Caden Goodwin took both the long jump and the triple jump, winning with respective leaps of 6.19 (PR) and 12.30 meters. Senior Jack Tilton claimed the high jump with a PR clearance of 1.95 meters for the Hubs, who will host a coed meet with LaSalle-Peru on Tuesday evening.

Rochelle finished second in both the 3200-meter relay (Elijah Mayen, Pedro Rosales, Tyler Johnson and Declan McGee) with a time of 8:36.28 and the 440-meter shuttle hurdle relay (Hunter Bivins, Wyatt Worthington, Kenny Overton and Edwin Mendez) with a time of 1:12.75. The Hubs took third in three relay events including the 800-meter relay (Caden Goodwin, Virgil O’Dell, Jack Tilton and Richard Pierce in 1:34.93), the 400-meter relay (Caden Goodwin, Virgil O’Dell, Nathan Rosas and Richard Pierce in 44.82) and the 4000-meter distance medley relay (Declan McGee, Jackson Smith, Christopher Hickey and Tyler Johnson in 11:52.72).

Rochelle placed sixth in the 6400-meter relay (Johnny Morales, Eduardo Cisneros, Chris Hickey and Levi Waddle) with a time of 22:16.22 and seventh in the 1600-meter relay (Jackson Smith, Declan McGee, Elijah Mayen and Wyatt Worthington) with a time of 3:48.58. In the individual running events, sophomore Hunter Bivins won the 300-meter hurdles with a time of 42.37 seconds and freshman Tyler Johnson finished second in the 3200-meter run in 10:23.37.